Finding crushed Granite/ 6/20 sand small lava rock or pumice i

pkapeckopickldpepprz(z9 a/b FL)August 10, 2010

Seems like completing Al's Gritty mix is impossible since any of the components for the inorganic non water retentive part is impossible to find or they are in the far reaches of the state or are prohibitively expensive. Wondering what all the Orchid and Bonsai people are doing for their supplies.

I went on a wild goose chase looking for a place in Florida that sold it and I called Southern States and eventually the manufacturer of Gran-I-Grit (North Carolina Granite Inc) only to find out they don't sell their product in Florida. Where did you find it Tom?

I'm not looking for the mix for orchids or bonsai actually, I just mentioned it to maybe get people that use those types of soils to chime in this thread.

I'm in Sarasota, but will be going to Largo tomorrow sometime so maybe I can kill two birds with one stone and meet up with you somewhere.

You want the good news or the bad news? Given that your coming to Largo the bad news is that I got 50lb. bags at Shell's Feed Store in Tampa, off Nebraska near Busch. BUT, they usually only stock the Starter grit. I had to get them to order some Grower....

The good news, if you get message before you leave or while you're on the road and can come by my place I can honestly give you 50-75lbs of the Grower grit, which is preferable over the smaller Starter grit which is too small.

A lot of paving companies have to truck in crushed granite aggregate, in various sizes, for incorporating into the asphalt mix for major roadways. The Florida Department of Transportation decided several years ago that our local limerock was too soft and broke down too quickly, so asphalt plants everywhere in the state have been using imported granite aggregates since then. Wherever you are, there's probably an asphalt plant within 20 miles of you; and if all you need is 75 pounds of the thousands of pounds most plants have in their stockpiles, I would think you could buy some pretty cheap. Worth a shot!

Tom I was checking my email throughout the day and I didn't know if you got my email address. I am already back from Largo, and I was at Haines City before that. I was hoping to have gotten your phone# while I was up there so I could have stopped by. I bought 8 bags of the 6/14 silica sand so at least I have something, but I still would prefer the Gran-I-Grit. Tom, how long is the wait once you order it from that feed store? Is the product actually Gran-I-Grit, or some different named stuff, and is it similar in size and structure? I still might take you up on the offer for the grit when I stop back up that way. We need to exchange emails again if you nerver got my email.

Karen that's a good suggestion, but I would think the granite chunks they would use would be much larger than the size of the Gran-I-Grit, and I can see this exchange if I even find an asphaul company that uses granite at all, "Do you guys have crushed granite in 1/4" sizes?" The guy on the front end loader, "We got a big pile of granite, is that what you want?"